Detergents also contain, in addition to surfactants and builders, per-compounds as bleaching agents, for example sodium perborate, or bleaching agent activators, such as tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED). Since TAED has only two acetyl groups to form active species and the biological degradability of the remainder of the molecule is inadequate, and since furthermore the bleaching-active components are inactivated by the presence of metal cations, so that further complexing agents, such as acrylates and ethylenediaminotetraacetate (EDTA), have to be employed, all these detergents comprise components of difficult biological degradability.
Detergent components based on carbohydrates are gaining ever more importance in modern detergent research because they have a better biological degradability and are obtained from naturally regenerating raw materials.
For example, according to EP 0 325 184, acetylated sugar-ethers are employed for heavy-duty detergents because of their action as a bleaching activator and as a foam intensifier and because of their softening properties. EP 0 540 279 discloses 1-acyl-substituted acetylated sugars which, together with peroxides, cause the bleaching action in detergents and result in other properties which are suitable for detergents.
EP 0 380 437 discloses long-chain acylated mono- or diesters of hexoses which can likewise be employed as bleaching agent activators. The disadvantage of this compound is its poor water solubility, so that the activity thereof is significantly lower, in particular compared with TAED.
DE 43 08 123 A1 furthermore discloses acylated aminosaccharides as bleaching activators, but these are sometimes present as a yellowish oil and merely for this reason are not very suitable.
Finally, bleaching agent activators based on acetylated sucrose have been described by Mentech et al in "Carbohydrates as organic raw materials" (G. Descotes, 1993, pages 185-201). However, the preparation of partially acetylated sucrose leads to product mixtures, and it has been found that as bleaching agent activators the hexa- and hepta-acetyl-sucrose derivatives in particular correspond only to TAED in their activity. However, the preparation of these products is difficult, since the selectivity of the reaction can hardly be influenced in the direction of these derivatives.